Abduction!

The third-person omniscient point of view of the novel infuses the narrative with dramatic irony. Dramatic irony creates additional tension and suspense because the reader knows the motivations and thoughts of all characters and thus has more information than the characters have. With readers aware of Denny’s plan to abduct Matt, the tension is high in the first few chapters because readers know of the impending danger—which Bonnie feels but cannot identify or predict. Instead of going to the buses immediately after the bell, when Bonnie might have intercepted Denny or at least noticed Matt was missing before Denny took him, Bonnie instead heads to the library to return a book. When she finally arrives at the buses, Bonnie cannot find Matt and thinks, “[w]ouldn’t you know it. The one day she didn’t come straight to the bus, Matt wasn’t there” (26). Bonnie couldn’t have known she was only minutes away from crossing paths with Denny and Matt. The guilt she and the school officials feel about their individual failures to prevent the abduction reflects how, when traumatic things happen, the people involved often wonder what they could have done differently. Sometimes, they punish themselves once they understand how close they came to preventing the crime or trauma, if only they had known something then that they discover only much later.

This section also introduces the theme of Intuition and Instinct. While Matt has been taught to keep himself safe, both by his mother and by school officials, at just six years old, he hasn’t learned to trust his instincts. When Denny appears in front of him in the school hallway, Matt recognizes that he should be skeptical and asks appropriate questions, but Denny is adept at—and has planned for—lying and manipulating information to overwhelm Matt’s skepticism. Peg Kehret returns to this theme throughout the novel to show the importance of learning to trust one’s intuition.

In middle grade mystery/thriller novels, an author must quickly transition into the action of the story while effectively building the tension and suspense. Kehret accomplishes that quick transition and tension-building prior to Matt’s abduction through multiple means. First, Bonnie’s discussion with Nancy about her nightmares in Chapter 2 references her fear of suddenly losing her family—her mother, Matt, and Pookie—just as she’d lost her father at a young age. With Bonnie’s greatest fear acknowledged and the knowledge readers have of Denny’s plan to abduct Matt, the tension and suspense increase as readers understand her greatest fear is soon to come true. Both the nightmares and Bonnie’s temporary irritation with her little brother foreshadow Matt’s sudden abduction. When Nancy invites Bonnie to the mall after school, Bonnie sighs and thinks that while she “would love to go shopping with Nancy and her sister […] she wasn’t supposed to ask Mrs. Watson, her neighbor, to watch Matt unless it was an emergency” and “Bonnie often wished she had an older sister instead of a younger brother” (24). Though these feelings are normal between siblings, her annoyance with him while he’s being abducted adds a layer of emotion to the story. Later, when Matt’s disappearance stretches from days into a week, Bonnie comes to appreciate her brother in ways she hadn’t before as she mourns at the thought of never seeing him again. Suddenly, all the gripes she had with him—such as having to play catch for him as he pitched baseballs or his frustrating tendency to eat the last of the strawberry ice cream—seem insignificant and even preferable to not having him around at all.

The ease with which Denny acquires personal information about Matt and his school and the lax security at the front office when he enters disguised as a UPS driver call attention to the need for Situational Awareness. Kehret calls attention to the flaws in school security that create potential vulnerability. Both school officials and students should always be aware of what’s happening around them. Had the school officials been more aware, they would have noticed Denny didn’t Give a name on the sign-in sheet or arrive at the library. As a result, Denny easily slips through Jackson School security, “the slight bulge of the handgun in his shoulder holster […] barely noticeable under his shirt” (10). The mention of a gun effortlessly brought inside an elementary school both shows the consequences of the school’s lack of situational awareness and heightens the danger and suspense. Denny’s careful plan introduces additional tension by indicating that it might be difficult for the police force, detectives, and community members to find clues to Matt’s whereabouts—or to identify the culprit. He relies on the school officials’ human nature, which leads them not to examine every situation for danger, and he is rewarded by successfully abducting Matt.

Kehret also effectively portrays the potential dangers and violence associated with Matt’s abduction through Denny’s characterization. His general behavior—gambling addiction, volatile moods, and tendency to resort to weapons or violence in times of anger or distress—results from his poor choices and antisocial personality disorder. His disorder, characterized by narcissism, anger, impulsivity, and inability to feel empathy, also fuels his plan to abduct Matt: He wants Matt only to show off to his sister and her husband. He’s tired of hearing them brag about their own children and tired of their mocking him because, as Winston tells him, “You’ll never have kids […] because your wives file for divorce on the honeymoon” (30). His pride hurt, he decides his only option is to abduct Matt. Once he finds Matt’s birth announcement, he moves to a bigger apartment to have room for Matt. Beyond the new apartment and the toys he buys, Denny is incapable of thinking any further about what it means to be a father because he is abducting Matt only to soothe his ego and to silence Celia and Winston’s bragging. He also hopes that Celia will be so surprised by Matt that she will stop nagging him about counseling and medication, which he adamantly refuses, despite a doctor’s diagnosis and recommendations.

When Denny does successfully abduct Matt, he “felt no surge of fatherly affection, no pride because this handsome boy was his son. He felt only relief that he succeeded in getting Matt away from the school without being questioned” (31). Denny’s inability to summon affection for Matt, his suggestion that he could have shot Pookie, and his complete disregard for Matt’s concern for Pookie and his family are stark evidence of Denny’s inability to foster emotional connections. His inability to empathize or connect with his son increases the threat to Matt because if Denny has no emotional attachment to Matt, then the possibility Matt will be harmed rises sharply. Denny’s impulsivity, while dangerous, also provides a potential weakness for Matt to exploit in the future. Kehret’s thorough characterization of Denny makes it clear that he’s a serious danger to Matt or to anyone who dares to intervene.